that's a good post and good postmortem. don't feel bad. no matter how long we do this, we are going to have some losses that surprise us. i know how you feel about losing a good hive. i still feel bad about one i lost a couple of years ago and it was my fault for not verifying a queen before winter. they had replaced the one they had and my guess is that the new one didn't make it back.

live and learn......

Logged

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The bees collect these systemic pesticides in summer with their forage, and then the colony dwindles away to next to nothing in the winter, the remainder of the bees dies from the cold.

Maybe it's only your strongest colony affected, as they might have discovered a contaminated food source too far away for the others to exploit.

Please try to identify the source of the toxin, it could be seed treated crops, pesticide trenched orchards or lawn treated parks and golf courses.

You might want to join the campaign to get these pesticides banned.

That's an interesting diagnosis, but aren't CCD hives usually abandoned? This one clearly wasn't. Following Occam's razor, there's a lot of evidence that other things besides CCD played a big part in the deadout - like winter, highly variable temperatures, robbing, small cluster size.

I'm no fan of neonics - and we're in Indiana, so there's plenty of experimental corn, etc in our county, but not within 5 miles of us. Also, all of the corn around us died last year because of the drought, so I really don't think that's what happened here.

Depending on other circumstances, deadouts caused by neonics don't all look the same.

If the maize is grown about 5 miles away, it would explain why only the strongest colony collapsed, as smaller ones don't forage as far away.

Anyway, please keep your eyes open about this topic and try to talk with neighboring beekeepers about the problem, to see if their experiences are similar and if the ones closer to the maize are affected more than others.

If it is too cold in the hive because of a small cluster and too much open space in the hive,it is very hard for bees move even a small distance to stores.You should have your mite population knocked way back in August before they start raisng the bees that will overwinter. If they are sick going into fall they may perish even with good numbers and good stores.When the queen slows laying in the fall,if there is any kind of mite load at all they attach themselves to the bees since there is no brood to go into.In the fall,all empty combs should be removed and bees confined to the tightest quarters possible.Most cases off ccd the bees usually won't touch the remains in the hive. I think your dysentary and robbing in the fall gave you more problems than any thing else. And if you were queenless or had a failed queen your cluster would have done nothing but decrease in size to the point of no return. The bees usually raise small patches of brood now and then through winter to maintain numbers.

Excellent report and post. Very thorough and extremely well presented. My condolences on the loss of the hive. Hopefully your analysis is correct and the experience will give you greater insight into the care of your hives in the future. All the best.Dennis